After Culture Machine, it’s Mathrubhumi’s turn to offer ‘First Day of Period Leave’

The women employees of the Malayalam news channel can avail 12 days of period leave annually.

Now the women employees of a Kerala-based Malayalam news channel, will get ‘First Day of Period Leave’. The channel announced that the women employees will get 12 days of ‘First Day of Period Leave’ each year. The channel currently has 300 employees, of which 75 are women. This leave is in addition to the normal leaves they get.

Talking about the new leave policy, Shreyams Kumar, managing director of Mathrubhumi channel said, “Ours is a very stressful job and we want our women to know they are understood”. They have the option of now availing the first day of their monthly period as leave. This is over and above the normal leaves that they are entitled to”.

Recently, the Mumbai-based digital media channel, Culture Machine, announced the ‘First Day of Period Leave’, releasing a video of women employees talking about the pain they go through during the period and their reaction to the new leave policy. This move was very well received and welcomed by its women staff and other professionals.

Culture Machine also approached and floated a petition addressed to the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Women and Child Development, demanding first day of period leave to be applied across all firms in India. There are huge supporters for this issue and the petition has been signed by 2800+ employees till now.

In several departments of the Bihar Government also, the women employees get a two-day leave every month for biological reasons.

Organisations are more concerned about the well-being of their employees nowadays. They are breaking the age old common practices in corporates and leaving no stone unturned to make their employees happy. They are more concerned for women employees now than ever before, with many companies recently adopting leave policy for maternity, childcare, mental wellness, first day of period, and so on. These were not in the leave policies of many organisations earlier. This only shows how companies are getting more sensitive to these issues now.

In India, talking about periods is still considered taboo and many avoid discussing it. But these small changes being adopted by firms will definitely change the thinking in the near future.